Odds are, if you live in an apartment, you have a balcony or patio, and if you’re lucky, you have one if your home is a condo or a townhouse. This tiny little “urban porch” may well be the only bit of outdoor space you can truly call your own, so why not take full advantage of it?
This post is aimed at making your balcony a fulfilling place to be for both pets and their owners, but anyone with a little bit of private outdoor access will benefit from reading these tips.
The pet owners among you will want to give your furry friend a little exposure to the outdoors in a safe way. Of course, your pet getting harmed or stolen is always a concern, so here’s how to prepare your balcony to be a safe, happy haven for your dog, cat, or bunny.
Real Grass Crate – Growing live grass in a basin on your balcony is marketed toward dog-owners short on time, but cats and bunnies would enjoy sniffing around on this their own tiny yard, too, without you having to worry about bugs or snakes hiding in the grass. If your animal does their business outside, commercial options will have a small sprinkler that washes urine into a collecting area, and you will need to pick up droppings yourself.- Protective Balcony Fence – Fears of jumping off a balcony probably are not a cause for concern with dogs, but cats and bunnies may well jump or step off without realizing how far up they really are. I used a grid storage set like the ones described here to create a fence all the way around the inside perimeter of my balcony, and held up against the posts of the balcony with cable ties so that I can let my cats out safely. Always keep an eye on your pets while they’re out there, though! Cats especially can be reckless when they’re exploring.
- Separating Pets and Plants – Many pets enjoy eating the fruits of your gardening work, and some plants are poisoning to small animals, so it’s best to keep the two apart. That doesn’t mean pet-owners can’t garden, too, though! Hanging planters and window boxes
attached to the side of your balcony will make your balcony a more positive place to hang out, with or without a pet.
- Water Fountains – If your balcony is covered, a pet-friendly water fountain can serve the dual purposes of providing fresh, running water to your pet, and adding natural sounds and sights to your balcony. For non-pet owners, larger water fountains can be very appealing and promote tranquility, but these fountains usually don’t have filters to ensure they are safe for drinking out of.
How to Eliminate Gift Card Clutter
I don’t know about you, but receiving gift cards makes me feel like I’m being handed a severely-handicapped form of cash, especially if it’s to a store I rarely visit. There are even a few stores that don’t accept gift cards online, so those cards linger in a pile on my desk until I’ve completely forgotten about them and the amount on the card has dwindled down to nothing.
Fortunately, I’ve figured out how to reduce wasting gift cards down to almost nothing, and how to use them and get rid of them quickly, without adding more clutter. Here’s what I do.
- Get all your gift cards out, including gift cash cards, which often have horrendously high usage and inactivity fees associated with them. Most cards don’t have expiration dates, but throw out any that are useless now.
- For gift cards to stores that you like that also accept gift cards online, either figure out something you need there and purchase it today (before you forget again), or make a few gift purchases to give to friends or family.
- With the cards that you can’t use online, decide whether or not they are really worth the trip to the physical location. Find out where the closest store is, if you don’t already know, and write down your planned trips for the worthwhile cards on your to-do list, and put the remainder of your cards in a separate pile.
- Gift cards you don’t need can be donated to charity through non-profits like the Works of Life charity or Gift Card Donor, which gives 75% of the value of the gift card you donate to the charity of your choice.
- Selling gift cards is another option, and it’s especially lucrative for large chain retailers. Gift card “brokers” like Plastic Jungle and GiftCardBuyBack buy cards at a certain percentage discount from you, depending on the store, and resell the cards for a higher amount, but still at a discount, to other shoppers.
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The average American home has $400 in unused gift cards lying around – save money and eliminate all your gift cards today.
Kitchen appliances are the type of gifts people tend to get from well-meaning relatives who want to give you something useful or practical. The rest of the kitchen clutter many people acquire either in pursuit of an exotic dish that requires them to go out and buy another tool (lemon zester? electric mixer? deep fryer?), or others who make a resolution to eat healthy meals at home more often, and feel like they need a kitchen appliance collection that’s up to the challenge.
The thing is, most people don’t cook enough to justify dozens of single-use items, though these special items may perform their lone duties marginally better than their more mundane equivalents. Unless you’re are cooking full meals at home more than three times a week, there’s almost certainly a significant amount of kitchen clutter you can eliminate. Here’s the same (albeit mental) list I go through when I’m going on a kitchen purging.
- Purge excess pots and pans. Most people really don’t need more than a couple pans and maybe three pots, but they often tend to reproduce in the back corners of dusty cabinets, and you’re left with more containers than three stoves could accommodate. Get rid of them.
- Clean out the refrigerator. Yes, you might find some pretty gross stuff back there, but then again, you might also be able free up some forgotten containers and not have to keep buying more every time you go grocery shopping. Use a baking soda and water or vinegar and water solution instead of normal cleaning supplies to wash out the inside without getting anything toxic near food. If you want to go all-out in cleaning out your refrigerator, read this step-by-step guide to stripping, washing, and refitting your fridge.
- Check expiration dates. Or, if you want to preserve your food for a little longer, check out this food expiration guide. Pretty much every food goes bad eventually, despite what you might think. I have found people’s spice racks to be particularly packed with little half-used canisters of spices that expired in the last decade.
- Keep counters clean. Tall counters are perfect for setting junk down on the second you step through the door, but forcing yourself to keep the open surfaces in your kitchen bare except for the occasional decorative item is good from both a feng shui perspective and to reduce unappealing visual clutter around the kitchen area.
- Organize your cabinets. Kitchen cabinets tend to have too few shelves for too much height, but you can give yourself more horizontal space by using shelf sub-dividers like this one on Amazon
. Suddenly, all your plates do fit in one cabinet. Amazing, right?
- Get rid of the misfits. My own dinnerware is mostly matching, but there’s still lingering themed cups or utensils that I accidentally walked out of a restaurant with that wreak havoc (visually, at least), on any hopes of having a neatly ordered kitchen. Unless you have a large family, more than a couple dozen each of flatware and dishes is overkill, and purging your cabinets of items that don’t belong will make you much happier with your kitchen in the long run.
Still lost? For inspiration, I usually check out the kitchn for pics of beautifully-designed but still livable kitchens, and the Container Store‘s kitchen section for products that might jump-start my imagination. A happier kitchen awaits you!
